ONLINE GAMBLING AND CASINO GUIDE

It appears that the Fontainebleau has a new buyer, and that new buyer is Carl Icahn.

Carl’s “Icahn Nevada Gaming Acquisition LLC” made the only acceptable bid on the property, which meant that the auction was called off.  Auctions are pretty lame with only one participant.

So, what was the winning bid?

“Icahn’s November offer of $156.5 million, including financing during the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, set the minimum for others to beat. The 63-story Fontainebleau, about 70 percent complete at a cost of $2 billion when it filed for bankruptcy in June, sits on about 27 acres at the north end of the Las Vegas Strip. It will cost about $1.5 billion to finish, former bidder Penn National Gaming Inc. has estimated.

A source close to Soffer said Wednesday that the Vegas project only has a license on the Fontainebleau brand for another year. The Fontainebleau name “will never be on the property once it opens,” the source said.”

While the price is nothing less than surprising, I do find it interesting that Icahn will dispense of the “Fontainebleau” name.  I can’t say that I am sad about this development, because quite frankly, I always detested the name.  There are simply too many silent vowels in the moniker, and I spelled it wrong 9 out of 10 times.  In my opinion, this property would have been the most misspelled hotel in the history of Las Vegas, right after “Caesars”.

Even though I am thrilled that the name will be changed, hopefully to “VegasRex’s Palace of Vaginas”, I am not quite as thrilled with the new owner.

The buyer is the 40th richest man in the world, and has a personal fortune of $14 billion.  The dude is 73, and he made his fortune on Wall Street.  It is my firm opinion that old dudes with more money than god suck balls at running casinos.  They all have the same tired ideas (”Hey, let’s put a bank of slot machines over there!”), they know little about what the middle class wants, they have nothing left to prove, and being old money guys … their primary focus is on trading instead of developing a name.  They don’t need to develop a name.  They’re going to die soon.

Most of these old farts engage in little more than a large game of Monopoly.  They buy properties with an eye toward fixing them up and selling them as soon as possible, or using them as financial leverage for other investments.  They don’t really care about the casino industry, don’t care about your gaming experience, and really don’t care about their product.

What the Fblue needs (and every property for that matter), is fresh blood with fresh ideas.  People who have yet to make a name for themselves, and will bust their ass to do so.  People who are not sitting on top of fortunes, and people who will be forced to live under a bridge if they f*ck up.  We need guys who will take risks, push the envelope, and bleed the edge.  We need creativity, not codgers.  We need people who love Las Vegas and the business of entertainment, and not only the almighty dollar.

The last thing in the world Vegas needs is some cotton headed prune with billions of dollars and a prostate the size of a grapefruit to take over yet another property.

Alas, this is exactly what we are getting, and for that reason, the soon-to-be-named property a few blocks from my home will probably be somewhat stale and underwhelming the day it opens.  It will be another Wynn, another Aria, or another Bellagio knockoff … you know, same shit, different address.

At least it will open, though.

I like the look of the ill-fated Fblue, and I like the location.  With the demise of Echelon, and the scaling back of the Sahara, The North Strip desperately needs its own City Center hype, and it looks like we might finally get it.

I just wish it wasn’t going to be brought to us by another member of the cast of rotating characters that have brought us the stagnation of innovation we have witnessed over the past decade.

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